Hormonal Receptors, Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2 and Triple Negative Immunohistochemical Typing in Women with Breast Cancer in Kampala, Uganda.

Background: The expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER and PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) has been reported to have an invaluable prognostic role. The aim of this study was to determine the expression of ER, PR and HER2 in women with breast cancer (BC) in Kampala, Uganda.

Methods: Expression of ER, PR and HER2 was determined immunohistochemically. Logistic regression was performed to determine the effect of the independent factors in predicting the risk of not expressing the breast markers. A two-tailed p<0.05 was regarded to be statistically significant.

Results: ER, PR and HER2 were expressed in 53.4%, 46.6% and 18.5%, respectively. ER and PR co-expression was present in 42.7% and 37.9% patients had triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Age was an independent predictor of expression of ER (AOR = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.062-0.541, p = 0.002) and PR (AOR = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.129-0.968, p = 0.043).

Conclusion: The majority of patients in this study had less than 50 years with high tumour grade. Interestingly, most of them had high expression of HER2 with TNBC which are molecular subtypes of BC with poor prognosis. Age was an independent predictor of expression of both ER and PR.